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Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a noninvasive technique to measure metabolism in the brain or in other parts of the body including the liver, heart, prostate or breast. It is used for clinical diagnostics, monitoring therapeutic treatments and to understand the pathogenesis of diseases.

At the Martinos Center, one of the major goals of our research with MRS is to advance understandings of the neuropathogenesis of AIDS using an accelerated simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-macaque model of neuroAIDS. Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) has reduced AIDS-related mortality, HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) continues to be a major problem in patients with HIV as up to 30% of HIV-infected patients develop neurological symptoms. MRS spectroscopy is a powerful tool for studying biological systems and is one of the most informative methods employed in neuroAIDS research. We are also actively engaged in research projects related to ischemic stroke and other neurodegenerative diseases - including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) and autism - as well as several clinical trials on recurrent glioblastoma.

At the same time, we are generally working to improve existing MRS sequences, protocols and metabolite quantification.